Huge funds have flowed into Ukraine since the war began on February 24, 2022. But President Zelensky wants more. What is all this money for and who controls its use?
The US Senate is expected to vote this Wednesday, May 18 an extension of 40 billion dollars for Ukraine. A colossal envelope aimed at bringing new military, economic and humanitarian aid to kyiv, at war with Russia. This sum is in addition to the 13.6 billion dollars already provided by the United States to support the war effort.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, “With this aid package, America sends a resounding message to the world of our unwavering determination to stand with the brave people of Ukraine until victory is won. Message addressed especially to Putin since Nancy Pelosi went to kyiv last Sunday where she met President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The billions of Europe
The European Union has also released significant funds to help Ukraine. Specifically, €17 billion to support Member States hosting Ukrainian refugees, plus €1.2 billion for macro-financial assistance to Ukraine and another €1 billion to support the armed forces.
This European aid is in addition to that of EU Member States and G7 countries. Hundreds of millions sent to Ukraine between February 24 and March 25, 2022 by Poland (962 million euros), the United Kingdom (721 million euros), Germany (492 million euros), France (416 million euros), Italy (260 million euros)) and many others, according to figures from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Figures are as of March 25. Since then, France has released funds for a total of 2 billion euros! Money is flowing into Ukraine as bilateral aid adds to this uninterrupted rain of money. The European Investment Bank signed a check for 2 billion.
Let’s add private collections that are difficult to assess. Given the global media craze over this war, presented as the struggle of Good against Evil, the money comes from all over the world. The Stand up for Ukraine donation campaign launched on March 25 has raised more than 10 billion euros, a large part of which comes from the European Union.
Crowdfunding
In this very specific context, President Volodymyr Zelensky launched a new call for donations, specifying that his country needed 7 billion per month “to compensate for the economic losses of the war. But above all, after the war, a lot of money is needed to rebuild the country. Hence this crowdfunding via the United24 platform.
“All funds will be transferred to the National Bank of Ukraine and allocated to relevant ministries,” the Ukrainian president said, adding that reports on the distribution of funds will be released “every 24 hours.”
For good measure, the IMF is calling on all countries to “step up” their aid to Ukraine by giving grants rather than loans.
A boon for business
It’s a lot of money, a lot of money. And during the war, business continues. Despite the terrible suffering of the Ukrainian people, business is particularly lucrative for certain industrial arms groups, for example. They renew their stocks and test the quality of the equipment in real combat conditions. It’s perfect.
Banks and other financial organizations are also taking advantage of the windfall to levy high commissions on these colossal fund transfers, as noted by UFC-Que Choisir.
It is difficult, for the moment, to know in detail who and how this money is managed. But in the United States as in Europe, associations of citizens question these monstrous sums sent to Ukraine while certain American states live in poverty.
Same thing in France, which has just allocated an additional €300 million to Ukraine, while aid for the homeless is €7 per day!
“Endemic Corruption”
Could financial and military aid be diverted from its destination? This is what Pascal Boniface, director of the IRIS (Institute of International and Strategic Relations), thinks, for whom money and weapons would be partly captured by mafia networks.
Ukraine has long been known as a country where corruption is “endemic” Geo remind us. “In its 2021 report, Transparency International ranks it 122nd out of 180. This is better than in 2014 (142nd) and better than Russia (136th in 2021), but it is far behind its European neighbors. President Volodymyr Zelensky, a 44-year-old ex-actor new to politics, elected in 2019, has promised zero tolerance for corruption. But its fight in this area has largely stalled, drawing criticism from Western countries and international donors.
In Odessa, “a city plagued by violence and corruption, the mayor and his clan nevertheless represent everything that the 2014 revolution wanted to liquidate”, writes The World. One of the most famous godfathers of the Ukrainian mafia, Simon Mogilevich amassed a considerable fortune through organized crime.
Are these powerful mafia networks at work in the distribution of funds granted to Ukraine? It’s hard to say, although many observers note that hundreds of luxury cars arrive in Ukraine at the border every day. Incredible for a country at war.
As for weapons, experts estimate that about a third of them reach the Ukrainian forces, a third are destroyed by the Russian army and a third end up in the hands of criminal organizations who resell them, particularly in Africa (we’ll talk about that soon).
United States 🇺🇲
More and more Americans have questioned Joe Biden’s awarding of tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine for a proxy war as the states themselves become like the slums of the ” Third World.” pic.twitter.com/t8qHTzM5kA— Christ_essis (@Christ_essis) May 12, 2022
Alert: According to Pascal Boniface, director of IRIS, the colossal financial and military aid known to Ukraine is “already diverted by mafia networks”, in 1 country “more corrupt than Yugoslavia”, and where “the weapons received would go in particular to other States” FranceInfo1:18 p.m. pic.twitter.com/jQy1TwZEP2
— Laurent Montet FREE MEDIA (@MediaMontet) May 16, 2022
Ukraine: War is also a business
Comments are closed.